ANOTHER page in aviation history will be written today when the world’s largest passenger plane makes its first commercial flight.

Powered by Rolls-Royce engines, the Airbus A380 superjumbo will take off from Singapore’s Changi airport with 471 passengers aboard.

The giant plane, whose wings are built at Flintshire’s Broughton plant, will fly to Sydney and is due to touch down in the Australian city at 5.25pm local time (8.25am our time).

Today’s journey ends months of uncertainty for the A380 project for Toulouse-based Airbus and for Singapore Airlines which will operate the first flight.

Problems with the wiring of the double-decker plane, which were accompanied by Airbus boardroom upheavals, led to deliveries of the A380 being put back around 18 months.

But last week, Airbus was able to hand over the first plane to Singapore Airlines.

Airbus chief Brian Fleet said: “The future is looking really good with the order ramp-up we have, not only of the A380, but also the single-aisle and long-range aircraft.”

The delivery followed the boost to the superjumbo programme provided by British Airways which recently announced it was ordering 12 A380s, with the first to arrive in 2012.

Sir Richard Branson’s airline Virgin Atlantic is also taking six A380s, although the project’s teething problems forced Virgin to defer delivery date four years to 2013.

Should any airline wish to cram everyone into economy seats, the A380 could accommodate as many as 850.

Singapore Airlines has contented itself with a configuration of 471 passengers, with first-class passengers luxuriating in special “suites”.

Today’s flight, which takes off in the early hours UK time, will see 323 passengers on the lower deck and 148 on the upper deck.

It includes 60 business-class customers, all of whom will have direct access to an aisle.

Faced with huge demand from passengers to be on the first flight, Singapore hit upon the idea of auctioning the tickets on eBay, with the proceeds – which have amounted to more than £600,000 – going to charity.

A number of Britons are on board a flight for which one eager punter paid £50,000 for one of the suites.

Ieuan Wyn Jones, Deputy First Minister and Minister for the Economy and Transport said: “Airbus makes an invaluable contribution to the North Wales economy in terms of jobs, skills and technology.

“The company’s world-leading operation in Wales is a flagship for the Welsh economy as a whole – highly innovative and working across geographical and technological boundaries to set new standards in the competitive global aerospace industry.

“Today is a milestone in the history of commercial aviation – and the best possible international advertisement of Welsh manufacturing excellence and competitiveness.

“On behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government, I congratulate everyone involved in this visionary project as we mark the commercial debut of what will be one of the most important passenger aircraft ever built.”

Airbus boasts the plane makes a quarter of the noise coming into land, burns 12% less fuel and produces 17% less carbon dioxide emissions, compared with a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.